The idle musings of a former military man, former computer geek, medically retired pastor and now full-time writer. Contents guaranteed to offend the politically correct and anal-retentive from time to time. My approach to life is that it should be taken with a large helping of laughter, and sufficient firepower to keep it tamed!

Monday, August 14, 2017

Racial and extremist violence in Charlottesville, VA

By now I daresay all my readers are aware of the tragic - and totally avoidable - events in Charlottesville, VA last weekend. I don't propose to add to the extraordinary amount of sturm und drang being flung around over the incident. I would, however, like to make some sober, factual points about it.

First, this is what happens when two opposite political extremes decide to take their arguments to the streets. Both sides are at fault, and both sides are equally wrong. What's more, both sides got what they wanted.

The racist extreme Right should not have tried to force their right to express themselves - and yes, it is a right - on a city that did not want them to be there. They could have chosen to hold their gathering in a less inflammatory place . . . but they wanted a confrontation, and the added publicity that they knew would result.

The progressive extreme Left (personified in this instance by those claiming to be Antifa, but including a number of other groups) should not have chosen to make this a battleground by deliberately arming themselves to confront and 'beat down' the right-wing demonstrators. They could have held a counter-demonstration at a safer distance (for which coverage from a sympathetic news media would have been guaranteed); but they wanted a confrontation, and the added publicity they knew would result.

Second, the authorities are at fault for what looks like a deliberate abdication of their law enforcement responsibilities. I don't believe their excuses, as quoted at the links. It is the job of law enforcement agencies to enforce the law equally across any and all political, social, cultural and economic spectra. It seems very clear, from multiple accounts, that the police stepped back from the violence and allowed it to play itself out. That is not policing. That is abandoning the city to extremism. It's a dereliction of duty, plain and simple - and, in this case, it made matters much worse. Any and all armed demonstrators should have been disarmed before things could get out of hand. If they resisted, they should have been arrested. Plain and simple.

Third, as I've warned many times in these pages, extremism of any kind - political, social, economic, cultural, religious, whatever - is dangerous. You can discuss, argue rationally, and debate with, any person of basic good will. You cannot do any of those things with an extremist. They will insist on their position, and react more and more aggressively - and, in due course, violently - to disagreement and opposition. Therefore, it's time for all right-thinking Americans to shun all those, on either end of the political spectrum, who believe that violence is a legitimate expression of their perspective. It is not. There is no room for such nonsense in any civilized society. If violence is allowed to take root in our politics - as appears to have been the case over the past few years - we risk the disruption and eventual destruction of our political system. That cannot be allowed to happen.

Fourth, this cannot and should not be turned into an occasion to criticize President Trump's response to the crisis. He did exactly what his predecessor did when faced with a similar crisis. Compare and contrast President Obama's response to the Dallas police shootings, and President Trump's response to Charlottesville last weekend. Both statements were temperate, trying to pour oil on troubled waters, and both acknowledged that there were many sides to the situation. Both Presidents were heavily criticized by partisan sources for failing to come down more heavily against one side or the other - but both were correct in trying to address the whole nation's needs, rather than one part of the nation. That's what being Presidential entails. If President Trump is to be condemned for his statement, then let's hear his critics' perspective on President Obama's words a couple of years earlier. Unless they condemn both statements equally, they're displaying partisan bias, and should be treated with the contempt they deserve.

Fifth, we need to look to our own security. I've written on several occasions about the need to be elsewhere when something like this happens. If you're caught up in it, you cannot guarantee your safety or those of your loved ones. Get clear before it goes down . . . but if you can't, be prepared to defend yourself. For example, here's a photograph of one of the demonstrators deploying a home-made flamethrower against some right-wingers.

The demonstrator wielding the flamethrower should have been either instantly arrested, or, if that had not been possible, he should have been instantly shot. He was deploying deadly force, something that could injure and perhaps kill innocent persons. He should have been taken out, right there, right then.

I won't be found among racist demonstrators like that . . . but as an innocent bystander, if anyone, of whatever persuasion, is ever so unwise as to try that against me, he's going to suffer the consequences. I will not permit thugs like that to attack me, no matter what the subsequent cost may be. They must be stopped. Period. I suggest that all my readers adopt a similar position. We - and the country as a whole - will be safer that way.

I disagree equally with both extremes of political opinion on display in Charlottesville last weekend. Neither deserves any place in American political discourse . . . but both are present, and in larger numbers than we might wish to imagine. We are going to have to deal with both of them. That's inevitable. We may as well get used to the idea.

There is, of course, humor. It's a much underrated response to such nonsense, and can help to defuse tensions. This, for example, was found on Facebook by Miss D., and caused both of us to laugh.

19 comments:

But... but... Tiki torches were the only kind they could find at the store!You can't expect them to make their own torches!You must be at least [insert picture of Neanderthal here] this intelligent to make a torch for yourself.

Discussions, arguments and rhetoric between opposing groups is preferred. But if one side elects to use force, be it legal, economic or physical, the other side must either react in kind or submit. It takes two to make peace. It only takes one to make war.

if no city allows one side to gather and speak, is free speech still a right? If the city orders the police to stand back and allow leftists to attack rightists, so that they can then declare the entire affair to be an unlawful rally, giving the police an excuse to push the rightists into the attacking leftists, is that freedom and justice for all?

Turn the other cheek, but you only have two cheeks. If you allow the bullies to strike you repeatedly without responding in kind, it's not forbearance, it's cowardice. The cold civil war is heating up, because the heat has never been turned off. The kettle's going to boil.

There is no discussion to be had. The left wants the right to die, and is willing to use every weapon in their arsenal to make their dreams come true. Violence, law suits, firing and black listing, de-platforming, shaming and scolding, selective enforcement of speech and behavior codes, control of the courts, academia, news and media. These are just tools the left uses in its never ending, ceaseless war against America and Americans. We either fight back in kind, or perish. It really is that simple.

Any city ought to agree with protest/ counter protest but only at our designated location. Find an old sports arena. Herd both groups into it, shut and lock the doors and let them have at it for the next 24 hours. Whatever happens, clean up and call it good. Survivors get to walk out. Call it good.

Both sides of this event are hate mongers. Both sides want statist authoritarian government according to their own beliefs. Both sides want speech control, both want social control, both are equally evil. The only problem is the current leftist control of local government and the media sides with the "counter protesters" who are really antifa groups. Antifa are the equivalent to the communist groups in 20s and 30s europe and the White Nationalists are close to the National Socialists. Now as back then both groups offer the same excrement.

Back in the day aerosol cans were powered by nonflammable Freon. The greenies insisted it be replaced and the best available replacement turned out to be propane. Voila! Instant flamethrowers. Using a can of something inherently flammable like WD-40 would probably increase the range and deposit flaming goo on the target. If someone ignites his can of pepper spray and aims it at you, you can use it as an ignition source for your own can of say, wasp spray, with a slightly greater range.

In Sweden they've gone to hand grenades so we're still the kinder, gentler bands of thugs.

It’s all over the news here in the UK about the extreme right wing march. Odd it’s always extreme right wing for anyone who is not on the left but I have never heard any one being called extreme left wing it does not matter what they do. It’s never extreme left wing all ways peaceful marchers, I’ve heard this said on the news when in the film shown on the news the ‘peaceful marchers’ are setting cars on fire.

It basically worked. I'm sure they didn't want to be beaten up as badly as they did, but they got the black clad maggots out to feast upon the flesh of America. And no matter how KKK the media tries to make it out to be, America is going to notice the problem isn't Nazis, but Anti-white violence.

We used to have actual Nazi and KKK protests in this country. And they'd look goofy and we'd make fun of them. So regardless of how crazy the media and politicians want to act on this one, we know the score. This is anti-white.

Reminds me of Berkley, where the police were told to stand down by leftist Democratic party leadership. If you are going to have demonstrators/counter demonstrators, have them parade in areas separated by at least a mile. For Pete's sake, don't let them get near each other.To me this is common sense. It avoids violent confrontation. If our leadership hasn't figured this out yet, they are a part of the problem. These situations always seem to happen in areas that are governed by politicians sympathetic to the left. I don't hold with either the far left or far right ideals at all. They are at opposite ends of the spectrum but with the same attitudes. Both sides want control, esp. control of how others think and act.

The media lies about the fact that the left always agitates for violence. Well, they got it good and hard. If those killed or injured are left wingers, well, I kind of don't care about them. I've yet to meet a leftist that has any respect for my 2nd Amendment or any other natural right.

Everywhere you tune TV or radio, you hear about "right wing extremists", but I don't see any reports of right wing people at all. It was all leftists. There were Antifa, Communists and Nazis, which are pretty much all the same left wing ideology. Heck, Hitler chose the brown shirts as a way to differentiate his Nationalist Socialists from the red shirts of the Russian Communists. They all have much more in common than with any right wing group.

Who else was there? KKK? Does anyone support the KKK?

The whole thing was supposed to be about a protest of taking down confederate statues, but that group wasn't even allowed to march or demonstrate.

I'll bet $5 you could talk to any "rent a thug" from Antifa or those other groups and they couldn't find the statue.

Scott H, the National Vanguard (a supremacist group) acknowledges and celebrates that they were there in force. A quick Google will show you that a great deal of organization was done on Stormfront (a major neo-nazi/supremacist) message board.

When the groups in question are openly celebrating their involvement and the photos back it up there's not much to argue about. What sources are you following that DIDN'T mention white supremacists being involved to some degree??

Part of the Alt-right organized this and did so with the intention of showing the country what is rising - Nazis, true Nazis, not just the play ones. Going without robes and trying to march peacefully, the leftist terror mob attacked, and the mayor and Governor aided the leftist terror mob.

You may not care for who was there, and who tried to protest, but they aren't that far from people like you and me, and the Nazis hate all of us that stand for anything like God and Country.

We've seen the beginning of a true civil war. The war of northern aggression, was no civil war, no matter what the false history yahoos want to call it. Civil wars look like Lebanon in the 80s, or Sarajevo in the 90s. It isn't going to be fun, but the left wants it, and you'd better be ready to fight.

Here's a tweet from Vanguard America's twitter: https://twitter.com/VanguardAm/status/896320537638703104"Today, the raucous calls of "BLOOD AND SOIL!" will once again echo across the Virginia sky. #Charlottesville #UniteTheRight"

Here's the wikipedia for blood and soil, a white, anti-Semitic slogan adopted by the Nazis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_and_Soil

And as for Stormfront, here's a thread where they're planning for the Unite the Right march: https://www.stormfront.org/forum/t1215665/"Going. Bringing a shield baseball helmet and goggles. I also got some mean fists.""I'm gonna try and make it and bring some of my members with me. We will not be dressed in our robes but causal dressed. -East Coast Knights of the Ku Klux Klan"

If you accept that they're white supremacists but still not convinced they're neo-nazis, just start browsing through their board. Like this poll thread "What are your thoughts on Hitler" with 72% for "he was a good man" and 5% for "he was a bad man"."Where is the poll option "He was a god and the White Race really didn't deserve him at all"?""He refused to execute the Jews and allowed them a second chance to destroy Germany.""I practically worship the man"(quotes from the first 8 comments of 472 total).

Were white supremacists and neo-nazis there? Yeah, MSM hit that nail right on the head.

It looks to me like the police didn't simply abdicate, they actively supported Antifa. I saw a map that got posted on Gab showing an overhead view of where the police, rally, and antifa folks were. The police actively hemmed in the rally people, then declared them illegal and forced them out of the park and into the streets where they were seriously outnumbered by the antifa, then run a gauntlet through them. Once the rally people were out of the park and surrounded, THEN the cops fell back "for safety reasons." They appear to have been actively trying to put the lawful rally people in harms way, not just passively not doing their jobs.

If that is shown to be true, I'd say apply 18 U.S. Code § 242 - Deprivation of rights under color of law. and, since someone died as a result of the police actions (and inaction), everything up to an including the death penalty is on the table.

What passes for communist agitation today is laughable--Stalin would have eating these guys (gals, herms, whatever) for breakfast. Given enough time they might figure out what they really want, and become worrisome.

But Nazis are, well, NAZIS. Social media Fascism is simple, direct, and far more organized than their erstwhile Leftist enemies. Given equal loathing of each, it's still dead simple to figure out which movement has to be crushed first.